this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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What was John F. Kennedy referring to when he said “a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy”?

The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961

Excerpt

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

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[–] yesman@lemmy.world 28 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

He's talking about the Soviet Union. This would have been clear to anyone at the time. Conspiracy just means more than one person working together.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It was mostly before my time, so I don't have that kind of insight. When I read it, it sounds to me a lot like what we see happening in the U.S. today.

[–] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 1 points 24 minutes ago* (last edited 20 minutes ago)

He was talking about the Soviet Union. Don't they teach this very basic history in school?

Who do you think was conducting the 'Cold War' in the last sentence?

[–] demesisx@infosec.pub 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

It’s pretty funny to see this thread filled with wrong answers by lemmy.world users and those same smuglibs downvoting anyone that suggests otherwise when it’s pretty universally accepted that he was killed by the CIA.

The CIA even did a distinctive CIA-style cleanup job , eliminating all parties with knowledge of the hit afterward.

What for many years seemed unthinkable has turned out to be true after all.

There was a CIA cover-up. The CIA did suppress information. The CIA did stonewall both of the official government investigations of the JFK assassination. And as a consequence of this Agency misconduct, both investigations were compromised in important respects-particularly in regard to the fundamental issues of whether the assassination resulted from a conspiracy and whether Lee Harvey Oswald (alleged to be the sole assassin in the Warren Report and alleged to be one of multiple assassins in the Report of the House Assassinations Committee) was affiliated with the CIA.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca -1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

So you're saying JFK was referring to the CIA when he talked about a "monolithic and ruthless conspiracy" from around the world?

[–] demesisx@infosec.pub 4 points 4 hours ago

Yes. They did, after all, assassinate him.

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

He was talking about worldwide communism. This was during the Cold War and no one would even think America was an oligarchy at the time. The audience knew it was the Soviets he was talking about primarily.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 hours ago

Bookmark worthy, thanks!

[–] diphthong@lemmy.world 11 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Russian and Chinese communism

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

This could be as easily applied to the people who killed JFK

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

From his wording, I'd think it probably did/does.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

How do you know that? Seriously asking.

[–] diphthong@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

In the quote he says he's talking about the Cold War.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

He makes reference to it, but also speaks of some kind of opposition from "around the world" that was working on "expanding its sphere of influence". He also described this thing as operating in secret, not out in the open. Was Russia operating secretly? (I don't know much about the Cold War.)

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

For those of us who lived through it, what he said was blatantly obvious at the time.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

Makes sense, I was too young to remember most of it. Still, does his description not strike you as resembling what we see happening in the U.S. today?

[–] diphthong@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yes they were operating in secret. There are many examples of their infiltration, such as the Cambridge Five.

[–] ehpolitical@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago

Ok, I didn't know that. I was too young still to remember most of it.

[–] HowRu68@lemmy.world -2 points 6 hours ago

Who are "they"?

Russian and Chinese communism

Yes, both have been forms of authorities rules.

And in light of OP's question. To me "they" are all the authoritarians; both the extreme left and right winged.